Calliope Mires
History Origin Calliope was born in a very intellectual family who heavily worshipped the Olympian gods, believing that the gods would reward them for being loyal followers. She is the daughter of Alessandra and Alec Mires and sister to Damen Mires. Though unknown to them, their parents used to be a duo of vigilantes for a few years in Larissa. Her parents retired after her father suffered from a severe injury, caused by a blow to the head, which left him in the hospital for several weeks. After their vigilante lives were over, they settled down and had a boy, whom they named Damen, though sadly, he hadn't inherited any mutant powers. During a visit to her gynecologist, her mother was informed that due to some scarred tissue and past internal bleedings, that it would be difficult- if not impossible for her to conceive. This news impressed them and left them feeling disappointed. Her mother was later diagnosed with depression because of this. Just when all hope seemed lost, the Greek goddess Eileithyia, presented herself to Alessandra in a dream. In her dream, Alessandra was approached by the goddess masked as a bartender. She didn't know who she was, but since it was a dream, she didn't care, but the woman irradiated a warm aura that made her feel safe. Just before the dream was over, the goddess pointed to Alessandra's belly, and when she looked down, she saw she was pregnant. '' ''Over the following 9 months, Alessandra's pregnancy suffered some complications, partially because of her medical condition, but managed to get through it. Suddenly, everyone in the room froze, as if time had stopped before she went into labor. She grew worried and started to panic until the same woman from her dream walked into the room, disguised as a nurse. Alessandra demanded to know who the woman was, and she revealed herself to be the goddess Eileithyia. They had a short conversation in which the goddess told her that her baby was going to be a healthy girl, and was destined to be a force of good. Once the room unfroze, the woman was gone and she went into labor. The nurses and doctors rushed into the room. After an hour, Alessandra pushed one more time and her daughter was born. Just then, an angelic singing voice filled the room. Early Years As a child, Calliope always felt in touch with her surroundings and felt like her words always calmed people down, and in some ways, she felt she inspired people. Of course, being a child she didn't think anything of it. She felt special and knew her parents were special as well. Her childhood was like anyone else's. She had her fair share of bad days, a moody personality some days, but she tried her best to make sure everyone around her was happy. '' ''Even at a young age, Calliope displayed a fascination for books and reading. By the time she was 7, she could read like a 6th grader, which amazed her parents. She possessed great eloquence too. Among the things she enjoyed doing the most, was reading on Greek Mythology. The whole history intrigued her, and even though she was young and smart, she knew somewhere in her heart that everything was real. She even had an "imaginary" friend with whom she spent most of her formative years. Her friend turned out to be a celestial creature that one of the Muses sent down to her, as their way to watch out for the little girl. Her mother used to read her stories of great Greek battles, both from mythology and her days as a vigilante, which always made her feel safe. Little did they know, the girl was not only destined to be born, but she was also blessed by Kalliope, leader of the Muses, after whom she was named. Later on, she found out by her mother that she was visited before she gave birth. Finding out that the gods looked after her family made her feel loved, and gave her even more confidence in herself. After this information was revealed, she pieced everything together and discovered that the Muses had blessed her with great eloquence. '' 'Mutant Heritage' ''When she turned 12, her "active" power manifested, gifting her with the ability to manipulate her hair. Her parents, most especially her father saw this as a blessing from the gods. She was thrilled to find out that she wasn't an ordinary person, but also afraid due to how much hate the mutant race still received in Greece. After learning of this, her brother Damen was left feeling like an outcast, and failure since he was the only one with no powers, but he still loved his sister and tried his best to protect her. To keep her safe, they took her to their lake house on the weekends where they taught her how to master her powers. Her mother was against training her for a long time, not wanting to see her daughter go through what they went through. '' ''A year later, just before her 13th birthday, she developed her secondary mutation: the ability to manipulate sound. Because of this power being activated whenever she was angry, Calliope found it difficult to control it. Coupled with being a teenager, she would unintentionally lash out and destroy things through the use of her voice. Her mother taught her an old meditation technique that her grandfather passed down to her when she was younger. Over the next few weeks, Calliope meditated for hours, which helped her to control her power, and finally stopped being afraid of herself. During her birthday, she was having fun with all of her friends and her parents were having a good time too and took this opportunity to catch up with their friends and take a break from their weekly duties and Calliope's training. When they were singing "Happy Birthday" to her, one of her friends, Henry, thought it would be funny to push her face into the cake. Calliope hadn't been prepared for the surprise, so the cake got in her eyes and caused her pain, which in turn made her extremely nervous. Out of anger and fear, Calliope started screaming, and her parents approached her to wipe the cake off her face. As they guided her to the bathroom to get rid of the rest, Calliope's subconscious took over for a moment. Her hair lifted in a threatening manner and released a screech-like sound, blasting everyone a few feet back. Her mother used her power of telepathy and altered the memories of everyone else at the party to protect her daughter. '' 'From Muse to Gorgon' ''A few months after her accident, Calliope went back to school where she didn't feel she fit in anymore. News of the accident spread across town, and somehow they knew it was linked to her. Trying to conceal her mutant identity, Calliope would tie her hair in a bun, though this barely helped. No matter what she did, she didn't feel safe anywhere. The kids at her schooled formed a 'club' of sorts dedicated to harassing the mutant students to drive them away from that school district. After they found out Calliope was a mutant, they decided to take their "pranks" to another level. '' ''One day, they followed her to the parking lot after school and surrounded her, to which she replied with sassy and sarcastic comments about how they were wasting her time with their stupid attempts to expose her, but they had everything planned out. They began calling her names and insulted her family for their beliefs in Greek Mythology. They started to verbally attack her parents and brother for being openly gay. She sent a few strands of hair and swatted them away, buying her enough time to rush over to her parents' car. The bullies caught up with her and thought it would only be fitting that she would receive a religious punishment; they threw rocks at her, which increased her anger into rage. She didn't care about exposure or being in control. Using her powers, she blasted them back and induced mental pain to them through her voice. Once her mother realized what was going on, she subdued her daughter and placed her in a deep sleep. This gained her the nickname "Gorgon". Xavier Boarding School for Gifted Youngsters One day Xavier happened to have been using Cerebro, and while he was searching for more mutants to enroll into the Xavier Boarding School for Gifted Youngsters, he received some serious feedback from a young girl in Greece that had been suffering due to the ambiguous nature of her powers. He sent Scott Summers and Nightcrawler to the girl's location, as he wished to have her enrolled in the school. When Scott and Kurt arrived at the Mires' doorstep, Calliope's parents thought they were there to interview them, and to see Calliope's powers. They were being stalked by reporters and journalists. Kurt and Scott revealed themselves as mutants, just like their daughter. Kurt's appearance shook them for a second, thinking that he resembled a demon. Of course, they didn't need to say it. Scott started by telling them where they came from; a school where other mutants like Calliope could learn to master their powers and stop feeling afraid. A place where no one would attack her anymore and would be surrounded by people like her. She didn't want to go and thought of herself as a freak. Kurt asked them to leave them alone, and he explained his situation to her. How he'd been compared with a demon for most of his life, and how he felt ashamed of his nature. After the conversation was over, Calliope said goodbye and went with Scott and Kurt to the mansion. Powers & Abilities Powers Trichokinesis:' Siren can control the movement of her hair as if it were countless thin appendages growing from her head. A psionic field permeates her mutagenic-altered hair-cells, causing mutual attraction across the gaps between strands. These relatively small forces operate in conjunction to develop larger forces. Through concentration, she can psionically move her hair in any manner imaginable. She can snap the length of it through the air like a whip (the tip of which moves faster than the speed of sound), or rotate it in a fan-like manner. She can bind persons or objects with it as if it were a rope or use it to lift objects which weigh more than she could lift with her arms. (Her scalp, skull, and neck do not support the weight of an object that she lifts: it is held aloft by the psionic force coursing through the hair.) She can also perform delicate manipulations with her hair such as lock picking or threading a needle, and such complex acts of coordination as typing or shuffling a deck of cards. Although she has no nerve endings in her hair, she can "feel" sensations on all parts of her hair by a form of mental feedback from her psionic field. * ''Highly Resilient Hair: Siren possesses a long, thick head of hair, every strand of which has greater tensile strength, modulus of elasticity, and shear resistance than an iron wire of the same thickness (average hair diameter: .045 inches), as well as the psychokinetic ability to animate her hair for a number of feats. Her hair, approximately 6 feet in length while relaxed, can elongate to 24 feet with only about a 25% loss of overall tensile strength. One strand of hair, 2-feet long, can support 6.4 pounds, a fist-sized lock of hair can support about 750 pounds and her whole head of hair can lift about 4,000 pounds (2.4 tons). A portion of her hair must be used to anchor the rest at these greater weights so that more than her scalp/skull is used as a brace.'' * ''Hair shapeshifting: According to extensive research done by Hank, Calliope's response to fear is different from that of any human or mutant. When she finds herself in a situation that causes her great fear/terror, her hair follicles produce a particular enzyme that, led by her subconscious, allows her hair to alter its appearance to those of snakes. After this happens, if she should be in a life-threatening scenario, they produce a high-pitched scream so subtle and imperceptible, it paralyzes everyone within a 6-foot range.'' ''Acoustokinesis: Calliope's primary superhuman ability is the power to harness electrons. The speech center of her brain contains a unique organic mechanism that can generate an unknown particle that interacts with the electrons she absorbs to create certain phenomena that are determined by her mental control. She can generate powerful constructs, blasts of sonic energy, and a single wave of sonic energy can send even superhumanly durable opponents back. '' * ''Augmented Vocal Cords: Calliope was born with greatly enhanced vocal cords. She can emit a high pitch scream sufficient to drown out the sound made by an airplane engine. This allows her to use her sonic scream for prolonged periods without damaging her throat.'' * ''Emotional and Physiological Control/Manipulation: Calliope can alter her vocal cords so that every note on the scale that she screams induces a different effect on those that hear it. An A note results in temporary blindness, a B note results in an extreme sense of euphoria, and a high C results in people experiencing vivid visual hallucinations. Other effects include a low C causing a person to experience low-level anxiety and shortness of breath, D causing a high level of anxiety and panic attacks, E notes cause dizziness and vertigo, F notes result in nausea and stomach cramping and a G usually results in severe headaches and fatigue.'' '''''Abilities Singing: Calliope has shown a remarkable talent for singing. She does this as both a hobby and a way to keep her vocal cords under optimal conditions.'' ''Combatant: Calliope engages in extensive training exercises, and sometimes chooses to spar with skilled teammates and even some of the X-Men members. Although she is not a master hand-to-hand fighter, she has demonstrated to have sufficient skill to hold her own against skilled opponents.'' ''Talented Journalist: From a young age, Calliope has been fascinated with the idea of one day working for some of the most important magazines and publications. As a way to accomplish this goal, she has taken several courses and online classes to one day become a journalist.'' ''Accomplishments in Literature:' Just like her parents, Calliope possesses a considerable degree of knowledge in Greek Mythology, and would sometimes call on some of them, most specifically the 9 Muses for help. '''''Limitations Strength Level Calliope possesses the strength level of a woman who engages in daily workout routines and combat training. '' 'Weaknesses' '' '''Physical Strain: '''An excessive use of her powers causes her different kinds of things, such as dizziness, headaches, temporary loss of speech, fatigue, vertigo, etc. '' Lack of Control: 'Due to the nature of some of her powers and their connection to their emotions, most especially fear, she can struggle sometimes to keep her power levels in check, or even use them when she wants to. She spends a large portion of each day meditating to keep her emotions in check. Left uncontrolled, her ability to manipulate sound becomes devastating. ''Gorgon Curse: Calliope's bloodline is said to have been cursed so that once every generation, one of the newborns inherits a blood curse. The specifics behind this curse are yet to be revealed, but given Calliope's powers, some believe it will turn her into a monster like Medusa.'' Paraphernalia ''Equipment'' ''Acoustokinetic Regulator: Calliope was given a choker-like device with a white gem in the middle. This device allows her to regulate the intensity of her sound-based powers and helps her to use her powers with more precision. '' ''Transportation''' ''X-Men Blackbird.